All The Ships In the Sea
by NJShorts
Summary: Give me a ship and I'll sail the seas. (Ratings Vary)


_Listen,_

 _I know I'm the last person you want to hear from, but I need you to just give me a chance…_

"What are you writing?"

Percy leaned forward on the desk, his shoulders blocking what little she could see on the paper.

"Nothing," he replied. "It's not important."

"Hmm," She hummed. "You've spent an awful long time hunched over that desk for it to be nothing."

Rachel crossed the room at a leisurely pace, stopping near the wide window, her back to him. Her fingers slipped along the smooth satin of her robe- emerald, like her eyes- as she married the two ends of the belt in a delicate knot.

"It's nothing," he repeated.

She saw him turn to look at her back in the reflection of the glass. His brows were drawn together, the way they always did when he got defensive. It was a look she'd grown used to seeing lately. Monitoring Percy had become increasingly harder the closer they came to the culmination of their arrangement. She wasn't completely certain what was causing him to stray, but they had a deal that would be upheld regardless of his apprehensions.

Percy looked down at the paper in front of him. He'd been scribbling on a piece of hotel stationary for the past hour and a half; writing and re-writing, scratching things out, struggling to find the right words to put into ink.

He could tell Rachel was growing impatient with him the longer they stayed. She's agreed to escort him herself from Manhattan to one of her homes in Venice, but staying an extra week had not been a part of the plan. Still, there was one last loose end he need to tie up before he left for good.

"Just let me finish this, please. Then we can be on a plane out of here. I have to do this."

Rachel turned to appraise him with an unreadable expression. Looking at Percy now reminded Rachel why she agreed to help him in the first place. He was handsome, especially now with his dark disheveled hair hanging in his vibrant eyes and the shadow of a beard gracing his jaw. But that wasn't the reason she wanted him, looks never were. It was his will, his drive to do whatever he needed to do no matter what it took. There where his flaws to consider, of course. He was stubborn, a trait she normally liked until it got in the way of what she wanted, and he was a hero. Doing the right thing ran in his blood like power ran in hers. She would break him, though, that she was sure of.

"Staying is dangerous," she reminded him as she returned to his side.

His eyes fell to the scratched wood of the desk. Guilt. Another one of his weaknesses she would eradicate. There was no place for that in her plans for him.

"Percy," She took his chin between her first finger and thumb, and turned his head to look at her. "Tell me why."

Percy's eyes washed over her form. Rachel wasn't interested in loving him, or anyone else for that matter. She'd made that clear from the beginning. But looking up at her pale, beautiful face, dusted ever so lightly with freckles, and seeing the way her damp auburn hair twisted and curled around the length of her neck and spilled over her shoulders, made him wish with everything in him that she would change her mind even if it were just for one night.

"I can't leave her like this. She deserves to know the truth." He finally answered.

The corners of Rachel's mouth turned down in a frown. "She knows her truth."

"But she needs to hear mine, the real truth, not the bullshit some suit would have her believe for the rest of her life."

Rachel removed her hand from his face and folded her arms across her chest. His eyes followed her movement, just as she'd expected. She needed him off his guard, his mind moldable.

"And what will you tell her about that night? You'll tell her that her parents were bludgeoned to death by a man out to get them? In a letter written on stationery?"

His jaw twitched as he ground his teeth together. "That's the way it has to be."

"Will you also tell her about how you hunted down their murderer and took justice into your own hands? Will that be in your letter, too?"

Percy tightened his grip on the pen in his hand. Gabe had deserved every second it took for the blood to leak out of his body onto the cold hard street for what he'd done to Percy's family. Every night, his dreams were plagued by vivid imagery of that night, taking another person's life was not something you forget easily. But he would do it time and time again if it meant he could set things straight.

"Yes." He practically spit the word out.

"Then you're a fool."

The silence that descended between them was only interrupted by the sound of the pen in his hand finally giving way under the force. He cursed as the dark liquid spilled over his hand and stained his letter with dark splotches.

Rachel took the opportunity to grab the back of his chair and spin him around to fully face her. She placed her hands on his shoulders and in one slow, fluid move, she was sitting in his lap. Her hands moved their way up to the sides of his neck and she looked down into his eyes, her gaze boring into his.

Percy dropped the remnants of the pen on the desk and placed his hands on her hips, anchoring her to him. He knew she wouldn't care about the ink staining her satin robe, so he didn't hesitate to hold her close while he could.

"She's my sister. My baby sister," he murmured.

"And she will be fine. She may not know the whole story, but why should she? Let her be ignorant. She's young, fragile. The truth would break her, kill her. Some secrets aren't meant to be shared. Need I remind you that you're only here because I'm keeping your secret. A secret that could hurt us both. The same secret you wanted to print on a piece of paper. Paper trails burn and I'm not going down in flames. I won't let you burn either. You just have to trust me."

She watched his face as her words sank in. She'd won, she could tell just by the way his softened around the edges. She didn't wait for his response. She stood and walked to the bathroom, pausing in the door frame.

"I'm going to gather my things. We're on the next flight to Venice, so pack up. Oh, and get rid of that letter."


End file.
